NEWSLETTER
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OCTOBER 2020
POLÍTICA
JUS TI ÇA de
SPECIAL EDITION
UNIVERSITIES AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION News in the Directorate-General for Justice Policy
WHAT WE ARE DOING AND ITS RESULTS The Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU in Justice – our priorities
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Plans (and outcomes) for a more efficient justice: the “PJmP” / “A Closer Justice” Plan 2020-2023
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Court statistics and some additional data: how is the Portuguese justice system working (even with the COVID 19 epidemic and dealing with it)
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IT and justice in Portugal: is it a match? We believe so
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Law and Justice in Portugal: our free online guides for citizens and companies - know more about justice and legal services and regulations in Portugal
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Do you understand what we say? Plain language and how to communicate better with our citizens (we are trying!)
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Updated criminal data, the Portuguese reality What does it mean to be “one of the safest countries in Europe”? (and not only the sunniest one - true!)
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A near future: “Drafter +” and how to prepare legislation in the 21st century
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International evaluation (OECD, EU Scoreboard, CEPEJ, GRECO): how are we doing?
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The Directorate-General for Justice Policy is concluding protocols with the two public faculties offering academic degrees in Law in the city of Lisbon, where our headquarters is located, in order to welcome and integrate students from these institutions in our work teams, namely for the completion of their master's degrees, already in a professional context. From 2021, we hope to have students from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (www. fd.ulisboa.pt) and from the Nova School of Law (https://novalaw. unl.pt) working with us, doing internships in different departments of the DGPJ, in order to develop a training path benefiting from the knowledge of the daily activity and work projects of a public service but also helping us to do our work better. In a near future, we will surely be associated with other academic institutions, in Portugal and abroad.
Justice Policy
EDITION Directorate-General for Justice Policy TEXTS João Oliveira, Bruna Costa, Pedro Correia, Mónica Gomes, Míriam Afonso Brigas, Ricardo Pedro, Inês Inverno GRAPHIC DESIGN, PAGE LAYOUT AND TRANSLATION DGPJ | CIC PERIODICITY Biannual | N.º 3 | Online Edition English version | ISSN 2184-8106
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ED IT OR IA L W
hile it is true that we once lived in a culture in which what was done, in the name of the public service, was restricted and closed, today we live the opposite. The “arcana imperii” are fortunately impossible today. We all have a clear duty in the public service to inform, to be accountable and to always give way to others, more qualified, younger, and more prepared when the time comes. Moreover, the hallmark we seek to leave will be all the more important as it is diluted in processes and improvements that do not have anyone’s name on and from which everyone gains. Justice, fortunately, has no epigraphy or owners. Secrecy gave way to communication, individualism gave way to teamwork, closed leaderships gave way to the empowerment of all co-workers and, with this, we have gained a society with a voice, richer in ideas and closer to everyone. Proudly, without opportunistic laundering and traditional littleness, this Justice of ours in Portugal is the reflection of a commitment to a culture of sharing, based on a clear investment in new information technologies and in the communication with those who use public services in this area. Transparency, proximity, rigor, humanisation, are some of the key words that guide our daily action. The reality of the Covid 19 pandemic, as has happened in different areas of our society, has had, and is having, its impact in the Justice area. Yet, the numbers show us that we, so far, have been able to deal with the adversities, even though the word “distance” is the order. We have reinvented ourselves when not so good things emerged and have continued to build new realities. It is resilience. Sense of service. To make the impossible possible – and especially useful and necessary to our fellow citizens, to our companies, to the world that nurtures, in the public service and in the private sector, the daily realisation of a concrete idea of justice in Portugal and around the world, more and more our common home. It is, hence, in the midst of this scenario that we take on the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union (PPEU) in 2021, definitely one of the most challenging for Portugal, both due to the success history of the previous ones, and to the limited reality we live in. This edition of “Justice Policy” intends to make not only the Portuguese priorities known in the area of Justice, in the PPEU 2021, but also some future and ongoing plans and programmes for Justice in Portugal, the figures that reflect our actions, the projects that have been developed and the assessment it is made on us. What is a substantial part of Justice in Portugal in 2021? Here is our statement of accountability and common challenges. May we remain united, even at a distance,… for a “Justiça + Próxima!”. In fact, anyone who wishes to take on new ideas and proposals, my sincere challenge is to send them to: miguelromao@dgpj.mj.pt. We are, in fact, what we have always been: a public service whose only reason is the people who pay us and who expect the best from us. Miguel Romão Director General
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THE PORTUGUESE PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EU IN JUSTICE
OUR PRIORITIES "Justice is today one of the most relevant areas in the context of the European Union."
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n 1 January 2021, Portugal will begin its six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It will do so for the fourth time. It has had this role, for the first time, in 1992, under the motto "Towards the European Union", and it was during the six months in which it headed the Council that not only the Treaty on European Union was signed, although in the Dutch city of Maastricht, but also the Porto Treaty, which created the European Economic Area. Eight years later, Portugal was, for the second time, at the helm of the Council, under the motto "Europe at the threshold of the 21st century". This Presidency was marked by the adoption of the Lisbon Strategy, by the 1st EU-Africa Summit and by the opening of the Intergovernmental Conference on the institutional reform of the European Union. It has been already thirteen long years ago that, for the last time, Portugal led the Council, this time under the motto “A stronger Union for a better world�, which was marked by the signing of the Treaty that would have the name of the Portuguese capital, and by the first summit between the European Union and Brazil. The success story of the previous Presidencies places a demanding burden on the work that will take place between 1 January and 30 June 2021. Faced with the unstable and extraordinary scenario posed by the pandemic, the challenges ahead will require a double effort of coordination, organisation and adaptation, so that the major objectives set for the first half of 2021, (a resilient, social, green, digital and global Europe) can be properly achieved and implemented.
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Justice is today one of the most relevant areas in the context of the European Union. The path of European integration thus proves it, and the successive institutionalisation and the exponential increase in matters of the so-called Area of Freedom, Security and Justice further confirm this. Portugal shall not fail to reflect this importance during the six-month period in which it will lead the Council. Five key axes will guide the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the Justice area, in particular: •
Priority to the Rule of Law;
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e-Justice and citizens’ rights;
• Protection of vulnerable adults;
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Strengthen the judicial cooperation in criminal matters and combating transnational organised crime, with particular emphasis on terrorism;
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Judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters.
At a time where Democracy suffers sensitive attacks, jeopardising the matrix that forms the European project, Portugal will strive for the affirmation of the Union as an area for the primacy of Law. It shall in particular enshrine, as priorities of its Presidency, the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights, the strengthening of all forms of prevention and fight against hate speech, racism and xenophobia, as well
as the consolidation of the external aspect of the European Justice, both in the multilateral and bilateral context. In order to embody the second defined priority, the Ministry of Justice will promote the Union's e-Justice policy, focusing it on the citizens' rights and on its economic potential. To this end, particular attention will be paid to interoperability, to the activities regulating the use of artificial intelligence in the justice systems, as well as to the longterm management of e-CODEX, continuing the 2019-2023 Action Plan for European e-Justice. Portugal wants the protection of vulnerable adults to be put back on the agenda of the European Union, both in the civil and criminal scope. The 5
Photography: https://eurocid.mne.gov.pt/ppue2021/presidencia-do-conselho
"...the uncertainty arising from the global epidemiological situation poses redoubling challenges to the exercise of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union..."
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European Union is a territory marked by an ageing population, by the frequent displacement of older citizens and by their choice to reside in Member States other than those of their nationality. As such, it is important to restart a process of weighing up and diagnosing on how the Union has responded to the challenges posed by this reality, as well as all the problems faced by any person or group who, even though adults, are particularly vulnerable. In order to strengthen the judicial cooperation in criminal matters and to combat transnational organised crime, with particular emphasis on terrorism, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union will implement the European Union Strategy for combating terrorism and radicalisation, with special focus on threat assessment and violent extremism in its various matrices and guidelines, including online activities. At the same time, Portugal will endeavour to implement the entry into operation of the European Public Prosecutor’s
Office. Finally, the fight against counterfeiting will also be a major objective of the Portuguese Presidency, implying a call for attention to the promotion and awareness of the protection of intellectual property rights. The consolidation and implementation of the existing acquis in civil and commercial cooperation will be the guiding axes of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union with regard to the last priority for Justice, along with the constant promotion of multilateralism and the solidification of relations with other international bodies operating in the area of Civil Law. While it is true that the uncertainty arising from the global epidemiological situation poses redoubling challenges to the exercise of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, it is no less certain that this fact only makes this enterprise more challenging and the potential results that may result from it more rewarding.
PLANS (AND OUTCOMES) FOR A MORE EFFICIENT JUSTICE:
THE “PJmP” / “A CLOSER JUSTICE” PLAN 2020-2023
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ver the past few years, numerous measures have been taken in order to turn Justice to the citizens and to their needs, adapting the processes and communication channels to the demanding times we live in, without losing focus on efficiency and in a more profitable allocation of resources. The adoption of the large set of measures taken so far, with special focus on 2016, led, right that year, to the approval of a first edition of the Closer Justice Plan (PJmP), which was in force between 3 March 2016 and the end of 2019, a plan that allowed, over time, the implementation and conclusion of 131 new measures that stand out for the contribution they brought in terms of efficiency, but also bringing Justice closer to citizens, making interaction more transparent and agile. This paradigm change dictated an investment in the justice network infrastructure, in the renovation and reinforcement of the computer equipment in courts and registration services, as well as the setup of a disaster and recovery centre. However, the changes were not merely technological and a new way of looking at the Justice System gave place to the “Digital by Default” movement, in such a way that the judicial process and the acts practiced therein are currently, as a rule, of electronic nature. In this context, the conditions were created to extend the information systems of the courts (CITIUS and SITAF) to the high courts, but also to the criminal jurisdiction (from the trial stage), administrative offences (from the moment the records are present to the judge), and to the cases of promotion and protection of children and young peo7
ple in danger (from the entry of the request to open the judicial phase) and, thus, increase efficiency through the case dematerialization. On the other hand, access to CITIUS was provided to insolvency administrators in order to streamline the practice of acts under their responsibility in urgent cases, with less effort and cost, freeing the judicial secretariats from registering documents that would otherwise be sent in paper. It was also for this purpose that efforts were made to improve the interoperability between CITIUS and the support system for the activity of enforcement agents (SISAAE), as well as the automatic integration in CITIUS of information from the inventory platform of the Notary Association. In addition, it should be noted that the support system for the activity of the courts has been increasing its range of functionalities with a view 8
to modernizing and improving usability, namely, with the creation of an SMS alert system for changes that occur in scheduled due diligences, with the possibility of submitting procedural documents in multimedia format, with an increase in the capacity for uploading documents up to 10MB and with the introduction of automatic character recognition of scanned procedural documents (OCR). All of these measures saved hours of work to the judicial officers, allowing these resources to be allocated to tasks that better contribute to the speed of proceedings. Within the scope of the Closer Justice Plan, online services were also developed to be provide to the citizens. Such services, in addition to making the interaction between the citizen and the Justice friendlier and agile, also contributed to reduce the number of hours that Justice workers
spent in fulfilling requests. Noteworthy, due to their relevance and innovation, the consultation of legal proceedings by the parties involved, a service that is currently widely used, and it should be noted that about 60% of online consultations took place at times when the courts were closed; the issuance of the electronic judicial certificate, which currently represents about 30% of the total certificates issued; the order and delivery of the online criminal record, a channel used by more than 20% of companies and more than 10% of citizens who require criminal record and the online renewal of their citizen card, which 4 days after being in operation it had already benefited 1400 citizens. In order to bring Justice closer to the citizen and to promote the use of online services, the Digital Justice Platform (https://justica.gov.pt/) was crea-
ted, where it is possible to access all the services provided and the “Justice Line�, a free telephone line for the provision of general information on the Justice services (where to go, what to do, how to resolve). Still on the path of efficiency, efforts were made to improve the communication of Justice with the citizen, namely, regarding the notifications addressed to the citizens in the payment order proceedings, making more understandable one of the notifications identified as more complex. After analysing the results, it was possible to verify a 50% increase in debt payments related to such payment orders, as well as a 160% increase in the demand for legal aid in payment order proceedings. Finally, a word to refer to the importance of evaluating the work developed during the execution of the PJmP. Regarding the procedural pending, there is a reduction of about 40% in civil actions, between the first quarter of 2016 and the same period in 2020. The disposition time, indicates a decrease of approximately 33%, when comparing the results of the first 3 months of 2016 and 2020. In turn, the clearence rate has also shown
"the success of the first edition of the Closer Justice Plan is undeniable, so that on March 2, a new edition was presented - the Closer Justice Plan 20|23. With a universe of 140 measures, it keeps the focus on efficiency, proximity, humanization and innovation."
encouraging results. Nevertheless, the international evaluation by an independent and recognized merit entity, the OECD, was considered relevant to assess the results of the main measures to modernize the plan and build recommendations (available for consultation at https:// read.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/justice-transformation-in-portugal_184acf59-en#page1). In view of the facts, the success of the first edition of the Closer Justice Plan is undeniable, so that on March 2, a new edition was presented the Closer Justice Plan 20|23. With a universe of 140 measures, it keeps the focus on efficiency, proximity, huma-
nization and innovation. While there are already 17 completed measures, it is worth highlighting the one that enables to recover the PIN of the citizen card, avoiding the need to renew the identification document before its validity ends. It should be noted that it is this PIN that allows access to some of the online services made available during the first edition of the PJmP. Among the new measures in progress and to be initiated in the coming months, mention should be made of those relating to the information system of the courts which, in a perspective of continuity, intend to increase interoperability, namely, with the connection to the enforcement
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"...the new Closer Justice Plan intends to strategically condense and guide justice governance efforts to better serve the citizens..."
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action databases and the “e-auctions” platform, which will allow to obtain more and better information regarding the identification of the enforced person and his/her assets and greater speed in the sale of goods under the custody of the courts, respectively. The dematerialization of communications is also an objective to be pursued, so it is anticipated that, in the near future, the information system of the courts will be able to communicate with the driver’s individual registration, bank entities, insurance companies and the Bar Association. With regard to services to be provided to the citizen, the intention is to enable the online submission of nationality requests, to increase the means of payment for the online criminal record, to provide automatic dispensers pick up the citizen's card and to develop an immediate expense reimbursement mechanism of expenses for witnesses and victims traveling to court. Measures that, in addition to improving the interaction of citizens with Justice, allow less burden on the Justice officials. The second edition of the Closer Justice Plan, also foresees the implementation of two emblematic measures: the Digital Justices of the Peace, which aims to bring a simpler, more economical justice system to the entire national territory, adapted to promote the resolution of disputes through agreements, obtained both in mediation and through conciliation and the Court + 360, which consists of carrying out a concept proof of the “Court of the Future”, exploring solutions based on the Digital Only paradigm. It is intended an evolution in terms of service, with more automation and increasing self-service options, but also the dematerialization of all paper information at the entrance, the exclusively electronic processing (including the presentation of evidence), the video
tion of the Closer Justice Plan, is now being extended to the whole country, with very significant results and a high level of satisfaction from the users of the court registries that already use this mechanism. Regarding the improvement of the communication of Justice with the citizen, the simplification of the language will be extended to a greater number of areas, to favour the transparency and to reduce the trips to the courts and the telephone contacts, in order to obtain additional clarifications. In short, we can say that the new Closer Justice Plan intends to strategically con-
dense and guide justice governance efforts to better serve the citizens, hoping that the Plan's flexibility and its adaptability to the concrete moment of its execution are circumstances enough to make this second edition a successful moment for the modernization of justice.
Images: Program "A Closer Justice" | Ministry of Justice
collection and the automatic transcription and translation. In terms of the development of the judicial network, the Plan also includes a set of simplification measures that aim to modernize the administrative practices to be developed in the court registries, with the reform of the service and the dissemination of the one stop shop concept in the service to users of the system, in which whoever goes to the courts is served in a single place, regardless of their needs, being subsequently redirected to the area that can provide the desired service in the most appropriate way Court +. This project, started in the course of the first edi-
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COURT STATISTICS AND SOME ADDITIONAL DATA
HOW IS THE PORTUGUESE JUSTICE SYSTEM WORKING
(EVEN WITH THE COVID 19 EPIDEMIC AND DEALING WITH IT)
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he COVID-19 pandemic hit Portugal, like the rest of the world, in particular from March 2020, producing a series of changes to the public administration, and to the entire Portuguese society. With regard to the justice sector, like other areas of public administration, it faced several challenges, with impacts on the judicial system, resulting from the economic and financial constraints resulting from the current pandemic crisis. In this new scenario, the Portuguese Ministry of Justice has adapted and maintained its focus on an appropriate institutional response to the situation, with an action plan structured to ensure the normal functioning of justice, and to maintain the working conditions of its employees. Adhering to the new technologies, new working conditions were implemented, with the teleworking regime as the main ally in the continuity of the activity. The Ministry of Justice monitored and followed the transition process, carrying out a study on the perceptions of its employees.1 Of the 2,373 respondents, from 11 different entities, 87%
consider the institutional response to be positive and 35% consider it to be a good or very good response to the COVID-19 context. The experience was evaluated favourably by 90% of teleworkers and 67% considered the transition easy. It is also important to underline that about two out of three teleworkers consider that their level of quality and in1 Results of the study “Teleworking in the Ministry of Justice and the Future Post-COVID 19�
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tensity of work, in this distance regime, is identical or better in comparison to the work provided on the premises of the institution where they work, putting in evidence positive and appropriate adaptation to the situation by the portuguese Ministry of Justice. However, although change management has been carried out in a flexible and simple way, within what is practicable, there are always impacts to be monitored, analysed and evaluated. Statistical exercises should be located in the cen-
tre of the action - even with its inherent limitations - since they allow to elucidate the challenges and obstacles and give rise to order, preparation and action plans with the ambition to offer the best possible response to society. It is therefore important to present the state of art of the Portuguese judicial system and estimate the impact of the consequent constraints of the Pandemic COVID-19. With regard to the pendency in the Judicial Courts of 1st Instance, the estimate of the civil pro-
cedural balance2 in relation to the same period points to a decrease in the performance of 18 752 cases. Regarding the criminal procedural balance, compared to the same period last year, a decrease in the performance of 5 142 cases is expected. With regard to the labour procedural balance, the expected unfavourable evolution is 7 093 cases, compared to the previous period. Finally, as regards the tutelary procedural balance, a performance increase of 7 437 cases is expected, compared to the similar period.3 These results converge, globally, in an impact on the average duration of proceedings that is expected not to exceed the additional
2 The procedural balance is a composite indicator, which corresponds to the difference between the new cases in a certain period and the cases completed in that same period. A negative procedural balance is favourable and represents a decrease in pendency. A positive procedural balance is unfavourable and represents an increase in pendency. 3 This is due to the beneficial results recorded in June 2020 and may be the result of resolving urgent cases that were accumulated during the containment period.
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"...the Portuguese Ministry of Justice has adapted and maintained its focus on an appropriate institutional response to the situation, with an action plan structured to ensure the normal functioning of justice..."
1.5 months.4 The authorities’ rapid and timely reaction has, it is estimated, made it possible to contain unfavourable effects at perfectly acceptable levels and recoverable in the very short term. In order to understand the possible realities to be faced, statistical calculations were carried out that led to four possible scenarios and corresponding estimates of the impact on the pendency and average duration of the completed cases of the constraints, no longer to the movement of citizens or to the limitations of access to justice services, but rather of the economic and financial 4 Calculation of the estimate based on: Correia, P. (2018). A Resolução de um Problema de Fermi na Justiça Portuguesa: O Caso dos Atrasos Provocados pelos Constrangimentos Informáticos na Plataforma Informática Citius. Revista de Direito Constitucional e Internacional, 26 (109), 277-287.
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constraints resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysing the results, the impact can vary between a more optimistic scenario with negligible unfavourable character, a V recovery scenario, a U recovery scenario and a L cautious and conservative recovery scenario in which the economic constraints resulting from the pandemic induce an additional 189 504 pending cases and an additional 4 ½ months of average duration. Even if in a future analysis the real values of aggravation of the pendency and the average duration of the completed cases are different, it is possible to conclude that the impacts of the economic and financial constraints resulting from the current pandemic crisis are far from a disastrous scenario, as feared, for months, because in a scenario marked as pessimistic we, hypothetically, face, in the worst case, less than two hundred thousand addi-
tional pending cases and less than five months of additional average duration for the completed cases. In fact, considering the global results obtained over the last five years, as shown in Tables 1 and 2 for the civil and penal areas, it is possible to verify that, even in the worst case scenario, the cyclical aspects resulting from the global pandemic will not be enough (not even close) to reverse the consistent structural effects that the justice system has been working on. In the period under consideration, in the civil procedural area, the number of pending cases decreased by more than 600,000 units and the average duration of completed cases was, in the first quarter of 2020, at 30 months, after reaching a maximum of 37 months. In the criminal procedural area, in the same
Table 1 – Number of pending cases and average duration of completed cases, civil procedural area, 2015-2020 (1st quarter)
Table 2 – Number of pending cases and average duration of completed cases, criminal procedural area, 2015-2020 (1st quarter)
period, the number of pending cases decreased by almost 25,000 units and the average duration of completed cases, in the first quarter of 2020, was more than 30% less than the amount verified in the first quarter of 2015. In the current circumstances,
no picture will be perfect, nor even close. However, the work and dedication of the Ministry of Justice manifest themselves, more than ever, in the purpose of providing answers to citizens and employees and to find the best solutions in the short and long term. 15
IT AND JUSTICE IN PORTUGAL:
IS IT A MATCH?
WE BELIEVE SO
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n recent decades, the technological development we have witnessed has enabled not only the collection and processing of large volumes of information, but also the analysis of this acquis with speed, efficiency and economy of means. This trend has not been ignored by the justice area, which, for two decades, has much invested in technology in order to increase transparency and promote the efficiency and efficacy of the justice system, while seeking to get closer to the citizen and to the needs of today. As regards the promotion of the system transparency, one of the first major advances to be seen was the automatic distribution of judicial proceedings through the information systems that support the activity of the courts (Citius and SITAF), initially in the first instance courts and currently also present in the higher courts and in all jurisdictions. This revolution in the working methods has proved fundamental in promoting the trust in the justice system insofar as it has helped to ensure compliance with the principle of the natural judge, in the light of which the arbitrary appointment of a judge is forbidden. Another important contribution to transparency is to provide information to citizens, in particular through the Justice Statistics information system (https://estatisticas.justica.gov.pt/sites/siej/en-us). Through this system, it is possible to access, without any cost, to the Justice numbers, regarding the most diverse quadrants, such as the procedural pendency, the number of crimes recorded, the variation in the number of inmates in prison or even the number of lawyers enrolled in the system of access to the law.
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However, the information is not restricted to the Justice numbers, and so, still under the aegis of transparency, citizens have been given an electronic access to the procedures to which they are parties, through authentication on a portal (https://tribunais. org.pt/Os-meus-processos), directly and without intermediaries. As regards the promotion of the efficiency and efficacy of the justice system, it has been observed that the use of technology has enabled the removal of administrative work from the courts’ back-offices and the registration services. Such is due, in particular, to self-service tools, through which the legal professionals and other users of computer platforms are able to carry out the tasks that previously had to be performed by the court and registry officials. This paradigm shift, based on technological evolution, has enabled the court officials to be free to perform nobler tasks, directed to the application of justice and, consequently, to the streamlining of procedures and to the increase of efficiency in the justice system, which is fairer if quicker.
The technologies, placed at the service of the justice system, have also made it possible to bring Justice closer to the citizens and meet their needs, namely through the online channel for the provision of services, which has the unique characteristic of being available at any time and from anywhere, thus following the dynamics of the times we live in. These services include requesting and obtaining the criminal record, birth registration, car registration, electronic judicial certificate, renewal of the citizen’s card, as well as the aforementioned consultation of judicial proceedings. This reality, which, as already mentioned, has been developed for about two decades, has placed Portugal at the forefront of the most developed countries from a technological point of view as concerns the access to justice. Such translates into a very significant competitive factor as an attraction to foreign investment and to the reduction of the context costs inherent to the development of the economic activities in the country. Nevertheless, the technology area continues to increase
"... we believe that within two decades the technological developments will enable us to position ourselves at another level..." 17
the range of solutions that can be placed at the service of the justice system. If currently, we do have difficulty in remembering how the justice functioned at the end of the 20th century, when, in 1999, the first information system to support the activity of the courts’ back-offices began. In this perspective of continuity, a new tool to support the activity of the judges – the Magistratus – has been developed. It is an interface for information that exists in the data repositories, which has been built over time, and where, based on existing, documentary and structured information, we have endea-
voured to make it more intuitive and functional, focused on the user experience, which will allow the work to be carried out in a more suitable and quick way. In the future, this solution will be extended to the lawyers and court back-offices, and be increased with solutions based on artificial intelligence technology. Nonetheless, the use of technologies is not without new challenges. The first, closely linked to machine learning, relates to the need to monitor the new developments of tools that allow the analysis of information with the establishment of objective, ethical rules able to guide the activity of artificial intelligence to canons that can be duly accepted by a society of freedom and social proclivity. On the other hand, it is necessary to bear in mind that the way in which we perceive technology should be based on an instrumental logic: to achieve certain objectives. The approach is multidimensional, with technology being one of the main components of this approach, but not the only one.
Magistratus video presentation
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Once these great principles are respected, we have no doubt in stating that technology and justice are elements of the same binomial, which progress and the need of knowledge and the fulfilment of justice have unbreakably united.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" Martin Luther king
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OUR FREE ONLINE GUIDES FOR CITIZENS AND COMPANIES
LAW AND JUSTICE IN PORTUGAL
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n November 2019, the Directorate-General for Justice Policy (DGPJ) launched two Guides with information on the functioning of the Justice system and access to the Law, one for citizens, the other for companies. These Guides aim to disseminate, in a simple and accessible way, relevant information on the institutions of Justice and their functioning, as well as the necessary procedures so that, in different circumstances, citizens can interact with services in a targeted and informed manner. The Guides are practical assistants, that synthesize simplified and permanently updated information, aimed at nationals who want to know more about the institutions and procedures associated with the law and the administration of justice, as well as foreigners who intend to reside, invest or develop their activity in Portuguese territory. From the citizen’s perspective, topics such as residence in the national territory and its requirements, the procedures necessary for the acquisition of nationality, the conclusion of contracts, namely the employment contract in its different modalities, consumer rights or the form of register of any asset or legal situation. The main aspects related to marriage, divorce, minor children, death and wills are also stated directly and clearly. In a logic of protection and information, the guide clarifies the procedures to be adopted immediately in case anyone is the victim of a crime.
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From the perspective of companies, information is disclosed on their set up, both from the point of view of national entrepreneurs and those who intend to invest in Portuguese territory. Areas are explored such as the protection of intellectual property, the necessary procedures for the realization of property registries or legal situations, the formalization of various contracts, namely in the labour area and the respective rules.
resolving disputes, whether through judicial means or alternative dispute resolution means, the cases in which representation by a lawyer is required, the costs inherent in to the participation in a judicial process, as well as the existing support mechanisms so that everyone can, in circumstances of equality, have access to Law and Justice.
In a logic of transparency and promotion of a fair and equitable competitive market, the Guide for companies includes a chapter with brief information regarding trade relations, with emphasis on the rules of compliance and prevention of risks of corruption, protection of personal data and consumer’ rights.
In order to allow a better understanding of the system and its operation, average times of procedural duration are disclosed, that is, the time that, on average, elapses between the entry of a case in the courts of first instance and its resolution, by procedural area. Overviews of the Civil and Criminal Justice in Portugal are also published, with detailed information, easily learnable in a single image.
Both Guides comprise a set of information about the Portuguese justice system, identifying the different actors, in a who’s who logic. They also address the possible ways of
These are practical instruments, of simple and accessible use, in a clear language, which intend, in a logic of effectiveness, to bring Justice closer to the user.
"These Guides aim to disseminate, in a simple and accessible way, relevant information on the institutions of Justice and their functioning,..."
KNOW MORE ABOUT JUSTICE, LEGAL SERVICES AND REGULATIONS IN PORTUGAL https://dgpj.justica.gov.pt/Documentos/Acesso-aodireito/Guias-de-acesso-ao-direito-e-a-justica
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PLAIN LANGUAGE AND HOW TO COMMUNICATE BETTER WITH OUR CITIZENS (WE ARE TRYING!)
DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT WE SAY?
T
he importance of clarity in the justice communication with the citizens makes it essential to strengthen the collaboration with the judicial system by promoting new models of communication between the court and the citizen, in order to encourage the use of plain language, accessible to recipients, especially in the citations and notifications sent by the courts. With this objective as a priority, the Portuguese Ministry of Justice, through the Directorate-General for Justice Policy (DGPJ), began to implement Measure 118 in 2016, in the context of the Closer Justice Plan https://justicamaisproxima. justica.gov.pt/, tending to simplify the language used in communications between the court and the citizen, especially in the citations and notifications that constitute the acts that usually make known the existence of an action or fact in court, or possibly call someone to court. The need to implement this measure is immense, both for its potential results, in terms of greater clarity in understanding the information conveyed, and for the universe of recipients covered. The difficulty in understanding the technical language used by the courts is one of the effects that is sought to reduce, better integrating the citizens in the structure of the justice functioning and making them more aware of their rights and duties. One of the challenges of this process is the ability to simplify the legal language without losing the due technicality in the form produced. The selection of the models of acts to be simplified took into account the greater frequency of their use. In view of the complexity and specificity of the task of language simplification, DGPJ contracted
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the acquisition of services to the company Português Claro (https://claro.pt/), dedicated to this simplification activity. The simplification process included the following phases: As a result, some difficulties were identified, accompanied
1
2
3
4
5
Context analysis
Structure mapping
Layout redesign
Content rewriting
User tests
Understand processes, systems and stakeholders
Group and organize information
Use design to highlight the most important information
Use clear language
Refine layout and language
• Choose familiar words • Make short sentences and paragraphs • Use concise sentences • Write in the active voice • Reveal vigorous verbs
• Apply the tests • Analyse the results • Share the conclusions • Make the necessary corrections
• Analyse the models • Analyse procedures • Interview stakeholders
• Analyse and map the contents of the models • Identify information gaps • Optimize the structure to group information
• Create a new layout, compatible with the production system • Use the design for easy reading
Source: Português Claro
by the respective proposed solutions. These changes concern several aspects of the documents, namely the visual orientation of the reading, the need to include as much useful information as possible, the elimination of footnotes, the importance of grouping content by topic, the use of common words and the explanation of the legal terms used and the need to avoid grammatical gender distinctions. 23
We now give an example of the above, with regard to changing the visual orientation of reading:
Problem Identified tifies light that iden There is no high of the letter ns io the main sect
Proposed solution Where is the purpose of this letter expressed? The purpose highlighted at the beginning, in a shaded text box
Insignificant highlights : bold sequences too short and without context
The most important messages, in bold, focus the reader's eye, providing a rich and accurate diagonal reading
Text column too wide for font size
Two narrower text columns
: letter legible ly e r a lics nts b Conte ll and in ita a too sm
Additional information in the left column, with grey text: • explanation of legal terms • examples • contacts
Identification, in the document itself, of the language difficulties of a document in use and what is promoted to change, with regard to the need for visual guidance of reading; Source: Português Claro
The first phase of the simplification project focused on the payment order procedure (procedure that seeks, for example, the possibility of collecting a debt), provided for in Decree-Law No. 269/98, of 1 September. In this sense, the 24
text of the notification forms was reformulated, observing the rules of plain language, allowing to streamline the processes of collecting small debts. In this regard, it is possible to identify the added value of using an accessible language
on the part of citizens, as can be seen in the data presented. It should be noted that the new forms began to be used by the courts in June 2017. Currently, the language simplification process has already
identified the most frequent forms within the scope of certain actions, and new templates are being finalized and will be used in the future. Another current challenge is to internalize the construction process and make the use of correct, yet simple and accessible language systematic and permanent, in communications with citizens and businesses. In this sense, already in 2020, the Directorate-General for Justice Policy set up the Unit for Simplification and Analysis of Processes, in whose competences these tasks are integrated.
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UPDATED CRIMINAL DATA, THE PORTUGUESE REALITY
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “ONE OF THE SAFEST COUNTRIES IN EUROPE”? (AND NOT ONLY THE SUNNIEST ONE - TRUE!)
P
ortugal is considered the 3rd safest country in the world and the 2nd safest in Europe according to the Global Peace Index 2020 (GPI – English acronym)1, prepared by the Sydney Institute for Economics and Peace, which ranked 163 countries according to 23 qualitative and quantitative peace indicators. The GPI covers 99.7 percent of the world’s population and measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of societal safety and security, the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict, and the degree of militarisation in each country. In fact, the high level of security experienced in Portugal is even more prominent when one takes into account the deterioration of the global level of peace, in a world where the conflicts and crises that emerged in the past decade began to decline, being replaced by a new wave of tension and uncertainty as a result of the pandemic caused by Covid-19.
Based on the Eurostat data2, the crimes recorded per 100 000 inhabitants. inhabitants in the year 2018, related to intentional homicide, grievous bodily harm, sexual violence (rape and sexual abuse of children, adolescents and dependent minors and others against sexual freedom and self-determination (all those that relate to sexual violence, except rape) and theft, should be highlighted:
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1
Source: http://visionofhumanity.org/app/uploads/2020/06/GPI_2020_web.pdf
2
Source: https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/setupDownloads.do
Crimes recorded per 100 000 inhabitants; Source Eurostat.
By reference to the year 2019, and taking into consideration the data produced by the Directorate-General for Justice Policy, the national body, which by delegation of the Portuguese National Statistics Institute, is responsible for the collection of statistics in the Justice area, one may observe that the average duration of completed criminal cases in 2019, was of 8 months3.
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Months AVERAGE DURATION OF COMPLETED CRIMINAL CASES (AT TRIAL STAGE)
With regard to the number of inmates in prisons, and taking into account the data produced by the Directorate-General for Justice Policy, it should be referred that the year 2019 has the lowest number of inmates in the last three years, which is 12 807 (sum of both genders)4. Bearing in mind the number of inhabitants in Portugal, this corresponds to 124 in a ratio per 100 000 inhabitants. 3
Source: https://estatisticas.justica.gov.pt/sites/siej/en-us
4
Source: https://estatisticas.justica.gov.pt/sites/siej/en-us
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DRAFTER +
A NEAR FUTURE: “DRAFTER +”
AND HOW TO PREPARE LEGISLATION IN THE 21ST
S
ince the 1990s, the European Union (EU) has privileged the pursuit of the Better Regulation1 objectives, which consists of an initiative aimed at creating, implementing, applying and evaluating quality regulatory acts.2 The excessive legislative proliferation, the use of airtight language in the legislative drafting and the limited participation of citizens and companies in the legislative process promote the lack of legal certainty and their disbelief in the political system. The context costs caused by the failure to carry out legislative impact assessments, by the complexity and the lack of uniformity in legislative procedures, on the one hand, and the high degree of human error in drafting laws associated with the scant use of artificial intelligence3 applications on the other 1 Further information on the initiative Better Regulation is available at https:// ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/planning-and-proposing-law/better-regulation-why-and-how_pt. In this context, at national level, the «Better Legislating Program» was approved, through Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 63/2006, of 18 May, available at https://dre.pt/pesquisa/-/search/633530/details/maximized. The objectives of the “Better Legislating Program” are to produce fewer normative acts, in a complete matter, on time, with rigor and clarity. 2 In 2001, the Mandelkern Group’s report identified the basic principles of quality legislation: necessity, proportionality, subsidiarity, transparency, responsibility, accessibility and simplicity. Necessity consists of assessing the possibility of achieving the same end through a means other than the normative act, namely through the assessment of legislative impact; proportionality translates into the assessment of the balance between the advantages and disadvantages that the normative act imposes on citizens and companies, as well as its balance with the aim it is intended to achieve; subsidiarity consists in the adoption of the normative act as close as possible to the citizen; transparency takes the form of public consultations with citizens and companies, in order to involve them in the legislative process; responsibility lies in predicting the effects of the normative act and in monitoring its execution; accessibility means making legislation physically accessible to citizens and businesses; and simplicity, which translates into the intelligibility of the normative act by citizens and companies. 3 Artificial intelligence can be defined as the set of computational methods that aim to solve complex problems.
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cost reduction
intelligibility
transparency
legislative harmonization
hand, constitute costly obstacles for the State, which it is urgent to overcome. Technological developments in recent years have enabled the development, in the area of justice, of software to support the drafting of contracts4 and regulatory acts.5 However, with regard to the legislative function of the State, in Portugal there is no uniformity or sharing between the technological systems used by entities with legislative competence.
rigor
Policy of the Ministry of Justice (DGPJ)6. This project aims to assist the activity of conceiving and drafting normative acts, through the design and implementation of a collaborative platform for the justice services.7 and 8 The platform should gather legal information, such as consolidated legislation, jurisprudence, doctrine, glossaries and statistics, and instruments to support the construction of the normative act, such as minutes,
It is in this context that the «Drafter +» project appears in Portugal, developed by the Directorate-General for Justice
6 In Germany, a project similar to «Drafter+», «eLegislation», is being developed, aiming to develop a collaborative and interoperable platform between entities with legislative competence and to make the legislative process entirely electronic. Further information on project «eLegislation» is available at http://egesetzgebung. bund.de/index_en.html.
4 E.g., Kira and Luminance, designed to analyse documents, check their content and detect errors. In this sense, see P. Farinha Alves, Inteligência Artificial & Direito, Inteligência Artificial e Gestão de Grandes Processos, Coord. M. Lopes Rocha e R. Soares Pereira, Almedina, Coimbra, 2020, p.93, IBSN 978972-40-8262-2.
7 In Germany, a project similar to «Drafter+», «eLegislation», is being developed, aiming to develop a collaborative and interoperable platform between entities with legislative competence and to make the legislative process entirely electronic. Further information on project «eLegislation» is available at http://egesetzgebung. bund.de/index_en.html.
5 E.g. «LEOS – Open source Software for editing legislation», developed by the European Commission and used in drafting EU normative acts.
8 Project «LEDA», developed by the Netherlands Ministry of Justice since 1996, is another project that applies artificial intelligence to legislative drafting.
"The development and implementation of a more efficient, transparent and reliable legislative process in the 21st century will, in the centuries to come, promote the confidence of citizens and businesses in law and democracy, which is the primary purpose of the rule of law."
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checklists and collaborative work tools. The project will seek, on the one hand, to promote the intelligibility, rigor and simplification of legislation and, on the other, to harmonize the legislative wording, endow the legislative processes with greater transparency and reduce their contextual costs. Such objectives should be achieved through the identification, adaptation, creation and standardization of legislative conception and drafting techniques, the automation of some of these techniques and the development of appropriate software. Once the design and implementation of the platform in the justice systems of Portugal is completed, the DGPJ will seek to make the platform available to the justice services of Portuguese speaking countries and regions, taking into account the similarity be30
tween the legal culture, the normative wording9 and the legislative processes of the legal systems at stake.10 and 11 The ultimate goal of the «Drafter+» project is to be an instrument of Better Regulation, which allows the preparation of the best possible legislation, through the joint use of artificial intelligence and the proficiency of drafters. It is intended that the use of artificial implantation systems within the scope of the legis9 See, in this sense, the research project «Common Rules for Legislative Drafting in Portuguese Speaking Countries and Regions», developed by the Centre for Research in Public Law (CIDP) of the University of Lisbon School of Law. Further information on the research project is available at https://www.icjp.pt/cidp/investigacao/4462/projectos/11618. 10 It is also considered the availability of the platform to the justice systems of Spanish-speaking countries and regions, given the similarity between the Portuguese and Spanish languages. 11 It should be noted, however, that this broader objective is strongly conditioned by the establishment of partnerships, cooperation and financing, between the DGPJ and external entities.
lative process complements, rather than replaces, human knowledge. Quality legislation will serve the needs of citizens and businesses, on the one hand and the state, on the other. It will be simpler, clearer, more accessible. More uniform, participative, dematerialized and automated, less costly and in smaller number.12 The development and implementation of a more efficient, transparent and reliable legislative process in the 21st century will promote the confidence of citizens and businesses in law and democracy, which is the primary purpose of the rule of law.
12 See, in this sense, the quantitative data from the 2017 Legislative Activity Balance, which reflect the reduction in the production of normative acts between the years 2015 and 2017. The 2017 Legislative Activity Balance is available at https://www.portugal. gov.pt/download-ficheiros/ficheiro.aspx?v=04e6eed4-e4b1-4cce9ebe-ed1114cb82e9.
INTERNATIONAL EVALUATION (OECD, EU SCOREBOARD, CEPEJ, GRECO):
HOW ARE WE DOING?
I
nternational evaluations are important mechanisms for assessing the compatibility of the resources of each State and the use of these resources in relation to parameters understood as revealing the quality of its intervention, in the most diverse domains and areas. In the field of Justice, these evaluations are particularly important, as the parameters in question are closely linked to the concept of the rule of law, the values inherent to human rights, democracy, good governance and the provision of a fundamental public service so that citizens can fully exercise their rights. In effect, evaluating implies measuring, assessing, analysing and, in some cases, comparing. The evaluation allows to identify constraints and obstacles, as well as to point out good practices and examples. Evaluation can and should be seen as a management tool with a view to improving performance, aiming at doing more and better. With this purpose in view, Portugal participates in various international evaluation exercises that look from different perspectives for different aspects of the justice system. These are exercises that, in a logic of promoting best practices, analyse how the justice systems of different States ensure access to Law and Justice or that measure the way in which they incorporate international Conventions and instruments in strategic areas and how they are implemented in practice. Among many others, we highlight the evaluations carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Council of Europe, both within the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) and within the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), and the evaluations developed by the European Union within the framework of the Justice Scoreboard (EU Scoreboard). These are evaluations in which Portugal has recently participated, with 31
"All these evaluations to which
Portugal
voluntarily adheres, in a perspective of transparency and with a view
improving the quality of democracy, to
have the advantage of formulating recommendations or providing a comparative analysis, in order to allow the evaluated
improve their justice systems
States to
in a constructive and shared logic."
a tendency for positive and significant results. Within the European Union, the Justice Scoreboard is one of the most relevant information tools to help the Union and its Member States to make justice more effective by analysing objective data on quality, the independence and efficiency of judicial systems. Based on indicators, it shows trends in the functioning of systems over time. The results of the most recent report, published in July 2020, put Portugal at the forefront with regard to the availability of electronic means, within the scope of legal proceedings. This report also revealed a clear decrease in the average time to conclude a case at first instance in civil and commercial matters, as well as a noticeable decrease in the pending cases. With regard to the clearence rate in the first instance, it was shown that it was constantly above 100% (in civil and commercial cases, but also in the administrative ones). The OECD also recognized the importance of the innovation and digital transformation process in Portuguese justice, pointing it as an example at the European level. In the recent report “Justice Transformation in Portugal: Building on Successes and Challenges�, the OECD highlighted Portugal’s
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commitment to bringing Justice closer to citizens and businesses. Effectiveness, transparency and administrative simplification are the lines highlighted with regard to the ongoing reforms carried out under the Justiça + Próxima and Simplex + action plans. The use of digital services and strategies is highlighted, namely within the scope of the Court + project, stressing that it has enabled substantial efficiency gains and has led to an increase in confidence in justice. In a more global perspective, CEPEJ, a committee of the Council of Europe that evaluates the efficiency and quality of justice systems through statistical data, recognized, in the latest report “European judicial systems Efficiency and quality of justice”, Portugal’s significant effort in order to allow access to justice for all, namely, litigants with low financial resources. The report highlighted the rationalization of costs in the courts, the clearance rates and the decrease in pendency, average durations and this entity has also looked positively at
the level of development of the information technologies in Justice. In the context of thematic evaluations, the evaluation cycles carried out by GRECO are particularly accurate. This Council of Europe group monitors compliance with the Criminal and Civil Conventions against Corruption, as well as with the Council of Europe’s guiding principles on preventing and combating corruption, operating through a dynamic mutual review mechanism between peers. Portugal participated in the various cycles already concluded, developing an anti-corruption policy in line with the recommendations that have been formulated. In the framework of the last cycle in which Portugal was evaluated, the IV cycle, under the theme «Prevention of Corruption in Members of Parliaments, Judges and the Public Prosecutor’s Office», recommendations were made regarding members of the Assembly of the Republic, judges and public prosecutors. Compliance with these recommendations was part of the Justice agen-
da and several initiatives have been developed to implement them, namely of a legislative nature. These initiatives will be evaluated during the analysis and discussion of the next compliance report by the GRECO plenary. Currently, the Fifth Evaluation Round, launched in March 2017, is underway, focusing on the authorities that exercise top executive functions and law enforcement agencies. All these evaluations to which Portugal voluntarily adheres, in a perspective of transparency and with a view to improving the quality of democracy, have the advantage of formulating recommendations or providing a comparative analysis, in order to allow the evaluated States to improve their justice systems in a constructive and shared logic. In the case of the recommendations, their compliance is monitored and the results are, as a rule, published and shared with other States, ensuring transparency and the collective usefulness of the procedures, without forgetting their role as part of the aid elements to the development of public policies. 33
We feel obliged to share what we are doing ...for a closer justice! And please share with us your expectations. Call or write to us: T: + 351 217 924 000 F: +351 217 924 090 correio@dgpj.mj.pt dgpj.justica.gov.pt
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